The worst thing to do when presented with a mysterious and unexpected scene which showed significant signs of having been a massacre was to leave the safety of the perfectly serviceable spaceship one had arrived in and venture out into said massacre scene to ‘find out what had happened’.

“You know we’re being watched, right?” Ayli asked. Tovos had decided that while investigating the partially constructed encampment was for some reason necessary, neither he nor his team needed to be the ones at the forefront of said investigation. That they’d snapped dura-steel shackles on Ayli and Nix’s wrists before forcing them out of the craft was so sadly predictable that Ayli hadn’t even bothered to complain. 

It helped that the shackles were the cheap store bought variety that Ayli had learned to escape before she knew how to read, but with her Dark Side still curled up and recovering from the thrashing Paralus had given it, she found she simply wasn’t as afraid of things as she probably should have been.

“Of course we are,” Tovos said. “The monsters scream in the Xah. They will not surprise us.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure of that,” Nix said. “Predators are usually pretty good at distracting their prey. They don’t tend to last long as predators otherwise.”

Nix didn’t sound terribly concerned about their predicament either. Ayli attribute that to the subtle nudges the Force was giving them. It was oddly easy to remain peaceful despite their captivity, unless one took in account the sense each of them possessed that the will of the galaxy was in the corner, rooting for them. The Force was neither all knowing, nor all powerful, and could certainly be bent to evil ends, but its natural state was one of balance and after the time they’d spent on Praxis Mar, it was staggeringly refreshing to be able to feel just how powerful that was.

“Of course she knows about these monsters,” Felgo said. “She probably called them here with Jedi magic.”

“Not a Jedi,” Nix said. It had become an almost autonomic response. “And you would have felt any manipulations I did with the Xah, right?”

Ayli smiled. Playing their pride against their paranoia wasn’t a sound long term strategy, but the grumble of discontent it brought from Felgo was amusing nonetheless.

“Out of curiosity, since you know they can see us, why are you bothering with the cloaking technique?” Ayli asked.

“And isn’t that manipulating the Xah?” Nix asked. “It’s not supposed to be this quiet here.”

It seemed like a valid question to Ayli, even if she knew that Tovos dropping the cloaking effect which was hiding them from general detection would result in the immediate appearance of Nix and Ayli’s allies. That was, from Tovos point of view, an excellent reason to stay cloaked for the rest of his life, except he didn’t know that.

“There is no corruption in silence,” Felgo said. “We are a hunting party and the hunt must remain silent.”

“Don’t explain to them,” Tovos said. “That one came to steal our secrets.”

“Asking nicely and letting you drug me is stealing?” Nix asked.

“You took our children,” Felgo said. “Just like a Jedi.”

“Stop talking!” Tovos said. 

Ayli suppressed a chuckle. Tovos was too young to lead a team like that. True, he was clearly a young adult human, but he didn’t understand anything any the situation they were in or how to manage those under his command.

That was made abundantly clear in less than a second when Nix tackled him to the ground.

Which was quite nice of her.

The Death Shadow she’d saved Tovos from disagreed with that assessment however. With appendages that looked like arms broken in three extra places, it reached down for Tovos who was scrambling away from it on his hands and butt. 

Felgo and Osdo tried to shoot the Death Shadow with the blasters they were carrying but Felgo’s shots went wide in his panic and Osdo’s bolts passed right through the Death Shadow. 

That wasn’t the real problem they had though.

The real problem was that with the trap sprung, the rest of the Death Shadows were abandoning their hidden refuges and descending on the small party en masse.

One of the younger members of the hunting party, Ayli thought his name was Yoldo, tried to hold off a Death Shadow by using his rifle as a staff.

That did not work.

The Shadow passed through the rifle and grasped Yoldo by the throat before pouring itself down Yoldo’s throat and into his eyes.

Ayli threw off her shackles and stepped forward to help Yoldo, but was confronted by two of the Death Shadows.

“Nope,” Nix said and dragged both of the Shadows back with the Force, flinging them into each other, which seemed to stun the two.

In the moment’s delay that took however, Ayli saw Yoldo’s body twitch, spasm, and then shatter. What hit the group was already a corpse as the Death Shadow that had killed him came pouring back out of its victim.

“Run!” Tovos said, understanding at last what a tremendously bad idea investigating the partially constructed camp had been.

“No!” Nix called, calling up a swirl of debris to form a shield around them.

It wasn’t a shield to keep out the intangible Death Shadows though. It was a shield to keep the Enclave hunting party from scattering (and then dying individually Ayli foresaw).

“We have to stand together,” Nix commanded. “I can’t protect you otherwise.”

“Your corruption will not save us!” Felgo said.

Ayli yanked him back specifically, since he seemed determined to plow through the whirling barrier that Nix had called forth.

“Of course not,” Ayli said. “Mine will.”

The Death Shadows were a terrifying and utterly deadly threat. They were not, however, a planet sized Dark Side nexus, or a centuries old Lich capable of lifting mountains. Ayli hadn’t really defeated either the planet or the Lich, but they had adjusted her sense of scale and without the crushing pressure the Dark Side cutting her off from the Force, she was able to recognize a familiar element to the Death Shadows.

When the first one broken through Nix’s barrier, Ayli was ready to meet it.

It tried to grasp her and she let it.

Which let her grasp it as well.

When it tried to pour itself within her, she held it away and waggled a forefinger at it. It writhed and shrieked and strained against her grip, but she wasn’t holding it with only her hand.

“We are one with the Force,” she said, opening herself to the Force and sharing it with the Death Shadow. There was a commotion behind her but Ayli ignored it. What she was offering was a gift which to both the Force and the Death Shadow, and she was not accepting returns.

The Death Shadow gave one final shriek as something else swallowed it.

There was silence as the shriek faded away.

And then the Shadows were gone.

Ayli could feel them fleeing faster than thought, driven away by a horror which was wholly new to them.

And she regretted that.

They were monsters. That much was unquestionable. Why they were monsters however was a mystery, and one Ayli had the sense she wasn’t going to enjoy finding the answer to.

“There, now we can leave,” Nix said, allowing the ring of spinning debris to settle to the ground.

“Yoldo!” One of the other Enclave hunters, Poroto, screamed and collapsed when he saw what was left of his friend.

“What have you done?” Tovos had the barrel of his rifle directly under Ayli’s chin, which wasn’t a position she was overly found of, but which she trusted would work out okay.

She just had to keep Nix from breaking the poor boys hands.

“She sent the wraith back to its proper rest,” Nix said. “And you will want to put that down.”

“Your Jedi tricks don’t work on me,” Tovos snarled as he looked over towards her.

“That’s true. They do however work on the trigger of you blaster,” Nix said.

Whether that was true or not, Ayli still had all of her self defense training hard wired into her nerves.

She had the rifle out of Tovos’s hands, Tovos on the ground, and the barrel pressed to the Felgo’s forehead before she was even aware she’d decided to act.

“This is where we become very polite with each other,” she said. “And also where I point out that the wraiths are perfectly capable of returning once their rage overcomes the surprise that shocked them.”

“She’s right,” Nix said. “Listen for them. They’re regathering already.”

“We..You don’t order us,” Tovos said, choking from one of the blows Ayli had hit him with. 

First rule of combat, protect your vital parts and he’d failed even that.

Ayli frowned, if she was really going to start making up a numbered list, the first rule of combat should be ‘avoid it like the plague’. That should also be the second, third, fourth, and so on rules out to a million or so, just to make sure people really understood it.

“That’s good,” Nix said. “Because we’re not giving orders. We are however also no longer taking them.”

“You…you won’t corrupt us!” Osdo’s voice quavered with uncertainty as fear poured off him and his presence in the Force became a veritable roar compared to the previous whisper he had been.

“Osdo!” Tovos’ voice was sharp and stern. “Be silent.”

“Osdo’s correct,” Ayli said, in gentle and calm tones, offering Tovos her hand to help him rise. “We won’t corrupt you. We won’t ask for your secrets, and we won’t teach you any of the arts we’ve learned.”

“And we’re not going to mind trick you,” Nix said. “If you don’t believe that, then consider whether your literal lifetime of learning to listen to the Xah would somehow not be enough for at least one of you to notice if either Ayli or I tried to bend it to influence you. You all just felt what it’s like when I use Force. I’m sure that seemed like a corruption to you, but listen to each other, and listen to the Xah. I’m sure you can hear ripples in it, but are any of you corrupt now?”

“You killed Yoldo,” Poroto said, an all too familiar, irrational anger rising in him.

“We did,” Nix said. “By letting you take us into this obvious trap, our negligence resulted in his death. We should have refused your order to come here, overpowered you, and flown us all away.”

“The Death Shadows killed Yoldo,” Tovos said, not exactly falling on Nix and Ayli’s side. His aim was clearly to cut short the discussion of blame, since a fair portion of it rested on his shoulders.

“You know what the wraiths are?” Ayli asked, offering Tovos his blaster back.

Which allowed Poroto to shoot her.

Or at least try to.

“Wow do you need a timeout,” Nix said, struggling with the words as she held the blaster bolt in place. Ayli stepped lightly to the side allowing Nix to release the bolt which promptly blew a fist-sized hole threw one of the dura-crete walls which had been erected.

Poroto went to fire again, but this time Nix yanked the blaster out of his hands.

Ayli sense an index finger snap and Poroto dropped to his knees cradling his hand.

“One more attempt, just one more, and we’re going to find your people on our own,” Nix said.

“They are gone,” Tovos said. “They are gone and they cannot be found. There was no time to set up a relay.”

“No. We can’t be Lost. They wouldn’t leave us for Lost,” Osdo said. 

“The Death Shadows found them after they fled once,” Tovos said. “There will be no finding them a second time. We are still Silent, but we are now Lost.”